How to Fix Game Stuttering on PC (2026)

Quick Answers

Common questions answered at a glance

Why do my games stutter even though my FPS is high?

Because FPS and frame time are different things. FPS is the average. Frame time is the consistency. You can average 144 FPS but have individual frames that take 3–4x longer than they should. Those spikes are what you feel as stuttering.

What’s the single biggest fix?

Will any of this break something?

Your FPS counter says 144. Your game feels like 60. You’re getting micro-freezes in gunfights, camera hitches when you turn, and that weird heavy-mouse feeling where your aim lags behind your hand by just enough to make everything feel off.This is game stuttering, and it’s not a performance problem — it’s a frame-time problem. Your hardware is pushing enough frames. The issue is that those frames aren’t arriving at even intervals. One frame takes 6ms, the next takes 22ms, then back to 7ms. Your monitor doesn’t know what to do with that, and you feel it as stuttering even though your FPS counter looks fine.

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This guide covers the most common causes of stuttering on Windows 10 and 11, ranked by how likely they are to fix your problem. Everything here is free, reversible, and takes minutes.

First: Confirm It’s Software Stutter

Before you change anything, make sure you’re dealing with a software problem, not a hardware bottleneck.You need a frame time graph, not just an FPS counter. Our app has this built in — IQON uses Intel’s PresentMon engine under the hood to capture real-time frame data per game, with a customizable in-game overlay that shows FPS, frame times, and hardware stats. If your frame time graph looks jagged with spikes while your FPS counter says everything’s fine, you’re looking at software stutter and this guide applies to you.If you’d rather not install anything, MSI Afterburner with RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) does the same thing for free. Enable the frame time graph overlay, play for a minute, and watch the line. Flat = smooth. Jagged = stutter.

Fix 1: Clear and Expand Your Shader Cache

This is the single most common fix for game stuttering in 2025 and 2026. Modern games compile shaders on the fly — small programs that tell your GPU how to render lighting, shadows, textures, and effects. The first time you encounter a new effect, your GPU compiles the shader in real time. That compilation takes a few milliseconds, and you feel it as a micro-stutter.Your GPU caches these compiled shaders so it doesn’t have to recompile them next time. But here’s the problem: after a Windows update, a driver update, or sometimes just over time, your shader cache gets invalidated or fills up. NVIDIA’s own support documentation confirms that corrupted shader cache files “may cause applications or games to crash on launch, exhibit lower performance, or display visual artifacts.” When the cache is full, old shaders get evicted and need to be recompiled. When it’s invalidated, everything gets recompiled from scratch.This isn’t theoretical. PC Gamer confirmed that increasing the NVIDIA shader cache size to 100 GB fixed Borderlands 4’s stuttering — a fix that was independently verified by multiple outlets. The same approach has been reported to fix stuttering in CS2, Darktide, and dozens of other Unreal Engine 5 and DirectX 12 titles.The fix:1. Open Disk Cleanup (search for it in Start) → select your system drive → check “DirectX Shader Cache” → OK. This clears the stale cache.2. For NVIDIA: open NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings → Global Settings → Shader Cache Size → set to Unlimited (or at least 10 GB). The default is often too small for modern games.3. For AMD: Shader Cache is enabled by default. After driver updates, reset it: AMD Software → Settings → Graphics → Reset Shader Cache.Your first play session after clearing the cache will stutter as shaders recompile. After that, it’s smooth sailing. This is normal.

Fix 2: Disable Fast Startup

Fast Startup sounds great but causes real problems. Instead of fully shutting down, Windows hibernates the kernel. Your drivers never fully reset, USB polling can become inconsistent, and GPU state from a previous session carries over. The EasyGamerSetups deep-dive on Windows 11 stuttering identifies Fast Startup as one of the top causes of input lag and frame-time instability.The fix: Control Panel → Power Options → “Choose what the power buttons do” → “Change settings that are currently unavailable” → uncheck “Turn on fast startup.” Your PC will now fully shut down and fully restart, resetting drivers and GPU state cleanly every time.

Fix 3: Kill Background Apps That Steal Frames

A single background app can cost you more FPS than you’d expect. Tom’s Hardware tested the NVIDIA App running in the background with default settings — game performance dropped 6% on average, with some titles losing up to 15%. The culprit was the Game Filters feature silently intercepting every frame, even when no filters were active.Now multiply that across everything running on your system. Xbox Game Bar (200–400 MB RAM + 18–23 ms input latency), Copilot, Widgets, telemetry, Discord overlays, RGB software — each one adds a small tax on your CPU and GPU. On a high-end system you might not feel it. On anything mid-range or below, it’s the difference between smooth and stuttery.The fix: Disable Xbox Game Bar (Settings → Gaming → Game Bar → Off). Disable NVIDIA Game Filters if you don’t use them. Close overlays you’re not actively using. Our background apps guide and Game Bar & DVR guide cover every offender in detail.

Fix 4: Memory Integrity (VBS) Is Costing You Frames

Windows 11 enables Memory Integrity by default. This security feature (also called VBS — Virtualization-Based Security) creates a mini virtual machine alongside your OS to validate the execution of code. It’s designed for enterprise environments. On a gaming rig that isn’t connected to corporate resources, it’s adding overhead you don’t need.The impact is measurable. Tom’s Hardware benchmarked VBS across multiple games and found disabling it improved framerates by up to 15% in CPU-bound scenarios. More importantly, it smooths out frame times — the spikes that cause visible stuttering shrink significantly.The fix: Settings → Privacy & Security → Windows Security → Device Security → Core Isolation → Turn off Memory Integrity → Restart. Our Memory Integrity guide explains what VBS does, who actually needs it, and the security trade-offs.

Fix 5: Your RAM Is Full and Windows Is Paging

When your RAM fills up, Windows moves data to your hard drive. This is called paging, and it’s about 100x slower than RAM. You feel it as sudden freezes — your game locks up for half a second, then catches up. If this happens more the longer you play, it’s almost certainly a memory issue.There are two causes. First, you might genuinely not have enough RAM. If you have 8 GB, many modern games will push you over the edge, especially with a browser and Discord running. 16 GB is the practical minimum in 2026. Games like Tarkov, Warzone, and Star Citizen want 32 GB.Second, Windows standby memory. Windows caches recently-used data in a “standby list” — technically free but not immediately available. When your game suddenly needs that memory, Windows has to evict the standby data first, which causes a stutter. This is especially bad in games with known memory leaks (Warzone, Tarkov, BDO) where usage climbs over time.The fix: Use ISLC (Intelligent Standby List Cleaner) by Wagnardsoft — the same developer behind DDU. It monitors your free memory and automatically purges the standby list before your game needs to fight for it. Set it to clear when free memory drops below 1024 MB. For the longer-term fix, close unnecessary apps before gaming and consider upgrading to 16 or 32 GB if you’re on 8.

Fix 6: Your Power Plan Is Throttling Your Hardware

Windows defaults to “Balanced” which throttles your CPU to save power — even on a desktop plugged into a wall outlet. During heavy scenes your CPU needs to ramp up instantly, and Balanced adds latency to that ramp-up. The result is frame drops during exactly the moments that matter most — explosions, large fights, zone transitions.The fix: Switch to High Performance or Ultimate Performance. Our power plans guide explains the difference and which to use. Desktop PCs should use Ultimate Performance. Laptops should use High Performance while plugged in.

Fix 7: Your Drivers Were Silently Replaced

Windows Update sometimes replaces your GPU driver with a generic one. You installed the latest NVIDIA or AMD driver, everything was fine, then a Windows update rolled through and swapped it out for a Microsoft-provided version that doesn’t have the same optimizations. This is more common than people realize, and it causes immediate stuttering.The fix: Check your current driver version in Device Manager → Display Adapters → right-click your GPU → Properties → Driver tab. Compare it to the latest version on NVIDIA or AMD’s website. If they don’t match, download the latest driver directly from the manufacturer and do a clean install. For a thorough fix, use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) in Safe Mode to completely wipe the old driver first.

Fix 8: Disable Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO)

MPO is a Windows feature that composites different display layers. It’s designed to make windowed mode and borderless smoother, but on many systems it does the opposite — causing frame-time spikes, black flashes, and stuttering, particularly in borderless windowed mode.The fix: This requires a registry edit. Open Registry Editor, navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm, create a new DWORD value named OverlayTestMode and set it to 5. Restart your PC. If this doesn’t help, you can delete the value to revert.

Fix 9: Check Your Thermals

If stuttering gets worse the longer you play, your hardware might be thermal throttling. When your CPU or GPU hits its temperature limit (usually 90–95°C for CPUs, 83–90°C for GPUs), it slows itself down to avoid damage. You feel this as sudden FPS drops during extended sessions. Our app monitors your CPU and GPU temps in real time and shows them in the overlay, so you can see if thermals are the problem without installing extra software.The fix: If your CPU hits 90°C+, clean your fans, reapply thermal paste, or improve airflow. For laptops, prop up the rear for better airflow and make sure vents aren’t blocked. A $10 laptop cooling pad can drop temps 5–10°C.

The 5-Minute Checklist

If you only have 5 minutes:1. Clear DirectX Shader Cache via Disk Cleanup, set GPU shader cache to Unlimited2. Disable Fast Startup (Control Panel → Power Options)3. Disable Xbox Game Bar (Settings → Gaming → Off)4. Disable Memory Integrity (Settings → Device Security → Core Isolation → Off)5. Switch power plan to High Performance or Ultimate Performance6. Install ISLC and set it to purge when free memory drops below 1024 MBThat covers 90% of stuttering issues. Everything else in this guide is for the remaining 10%.

If You Play Specific Games

Some games have their own engine-specific stutter causes that go beyond Windows settings. We’ve written per-game guides that cover in-game settings, launch options, config file tweaks, and network tuning:• Fortnite — UE5 Nanite, shader compilation, and why Lumen tanks your 1% lows• Warzone — On-Demand Texture Streaming, packet burst, and the VRAM overflow stutter• CS2 — Source 2 CPU bottleneck, volumetric smoke FPS drops, and the Reflex debate• Escape From Tarkov — Unity memory leak, 32 GB RAM requirement, and boot.config• View all per-game guides

Keep Going

Stuttering is just one symptom. For the bigger picture:• Why Is My PC So Slow? — The full diagnostic covering every common cause of slow PC performance• Copilot & Bloatware — Every preinstalled app, all 13+ AI features, and how to remove them• Background Apps — Which background processes steal the most resources and how to stop them• Startup Optimization — Which programs to disable from loading at bootSmooth frames aren’t about raw power. They’re about removing everything that gets in the way of your hardware doing what it’s already capable of.